Last year for Coach Bob Sikes at De Queen High School

De Queen junior boys track coach Peyton Covington stacks hurdles in the bed of senior boys coach Jonathan Lindsey’s truck as senior girls coach Lanny Allen heads to the next flight. The coaches returned the hurdles to storage after the shortest track season in De Queen history.

New Leopard head football coach Brad Chessir is back in De Queen with the intention of remaining longer than he did during his first stay.

As the school year draws to an end — even as strange as this one has been — some normal issues remain. One of them is personnel changes. There is a major change in Leopard Land.

On Wednesday, May 6, UA Cossatot hosted a virtual Zoom press conference to introduce Robert Byrd as the college's newly hired men's and women's basketball coach. It was also announced during the conference that Byrd would also be taking on the role of athletic director for UA Cossatot.

It was shortly over a year ago that Horatio baseball coach Lance Spigner announced he was leaving that post to begin a baseball program at UA-Rich Mountain in Mena. At that point Rich Mountain baseball existed only in theory. A multitude of changes has occurred since then.

He is still coaching softball, but for the moment the tools are different. In creating a softball program at Rich Mountain College, Tracy Nealy has been using not bats, balls and gloves, but his phone and laptop.

It’s hard to imagine a good time for an athletic team to lose a season, but some times are worse than others. The 2020 season that was Coronavirus cancelled was a very bad time for it to happen to the De Queen boys track team.

“It was so quick. We just got into it, then it was over,” said De Queen senior girls track coach Lanny Allen of the lost 2020 season.

A news release on Saturday, April 4, announced that a decision on the fate of the state’s public schools would be revealed the following Monday.

De Queen girls soccer coach Jason Barker has been trying to stay busy during the unprecedented school closing. “I’ve done a lot of chores around the house, mended a fence, fixed up the back yard. Some of the coaches played golf at Little River one day. One day we floated the river,” Barker said.

A decade long dream of two De Queen men is coming ever closer to fruition.

Six Horatio basketball players were chosen to their respective all-conference teams.

All seven members of the De Queen’s girls basketball team’s rotation were named to the 7AAAA all-conference team.

Horatio softball coach Brice Higgins was not caught by surprise when the Coronavirus scare caused the season to be suspended.

Of all the possible situations that could have occurred during the season, first year De Queen softball coach Caitlin Collins never thought about the season’s being suspended. Not to mention being separated from her players.

UA Cossatot announced Saturday that they are now taking applications for their next men’s and women’s basketball coach after the departure of head coach Brad Phillips.

The 2020 baseball season will long be remembered, and not in a positive way. Baseball and a myriad of other activities across the country have been interrupted by the coronavirus scare.

Stephen Sprick knew there would be unforeseeable challenges in his first year as Horatio head baseball coach. Even in his wildest dreams, he would not have predicted the season would be suspended after two weeks due to a health scare.

The annual Dugan Ward Memorial baseball tournament began March 12 with games played at Horatio and Ashdown. Wet weather and a health scare ended the tournament after the first day.

De Queen freshman Jenith Sierra pitched a no-hitter as the Lady Leopards defeated visiting Arkadelphia 14-0.

It was a rare occurrence: sunshine and warm temperatures for the Cub Relays. The first De Queen home meet of the season was held March 10 with the home town girls placing third and the boys fifth. 

De Queen’s baseball team downed visiting Arkadelphia 9-4 in a March 10 contest.

Both De Queen soccer teams won in the first home matches of the season.

Wednesday Night Lights will be held every Wednesday in April at Leopard Stadium.

The Horatio baseball team made it to the finals of De Queen’s Leopard Invitational Tournament but fell to Broken Bow 11-3 in the final.

HOT SPRINGS —  De Queen teams took first and second places at the Lakeside Relays, the first meet of the outdoor track season March 5.

New De Queen head football coach Brad Chessir admonishes the Leopards in a tug-of-war on his first day on the job. Chessir told the players that each day of off-season training will begin with some form of competition. Tug-of-war was the choice for the first days.

De Queen won two games sandwiched around a loss in the Leopard Invitational Tournament.

ARKADELPHIA — Horatio finished second in the Southwest Arkansas tournament at Arkadelphia March 7. The Lady Lions fell to Nashville 4-2 in the final.

On Feb. 20 and 22, two sophomore athletes played their last basketball game at UA Cossatot. The college paid tribute and recognized Colts player La Drakkus Thomas and Lady Colt's player Mackenzie Cardenas in a special moment before each of their final games.

CROSSETT — It was a jarring end to the Lady Leopard basketball season. De Queen fell to the host team 56-52 in the first round of the class 4A South regional tournament.

There will be many new faces on the field for Leopard soccer this season.

This is a year of major changes for De Queen softball. For the first time this millennium, a new coach will be guiding the Lady Leopards.

FAYETTEVILLE —  De Queen teams were in the top five of both boys and girls team totals at the Arkansas Coaches Association’s state indoor track meet at the UA facility in Fayetteville Feb. 28.

MOUNT IDA — Horatio’s fourth seeded senior girls went out of the conference tournament at the hands of first seeded Acorn. The Lady Tigers, unbeaten in conference play, posted a 67-38 win.

MALVERN — An upset was not forthcoming despite a second half surge. The De Queen boys were knocked out of the 7AAAA tournament 60-51 by Nashville Feb. 20.

MALVERN — The De Queen girls won the 7AAAA tournament by beating Mena 33-26 in the championship game Feb. 22. 

The first major event of the spring sports schedule will be the Arkansas Track Coaches Association indoor states meet Feb. 28 at Fayetteville.

LOCKESBURG — The Legacy Warriors senior boys team played their final home game of the season tonight before an excited home crowd against the Christian Ministries Academy (CMA) of Hot Springs Village.

Veteran basketball official David Hall of De Queen was honored Thursday, Feb. 13, before the finals of the District 7-4A junior high tournament at Scrapper Arena. 

De Queen took both games from the visiting Bobcats of Hope Feb. 7 as the 7AAAA basketball schedule approached the final week of the regular season.

MENA — Both Leopard teams were victorious when the De Queen senior teams visited Mena Feb. 4.

FOREMAN — Horatio won three games at Foreman Feb. 6.

Both Horatio teams handily defeated Trinity Christian of Texarkana on the Lions Senior Night Feb. 7.

The UA Cossatot Colts and Lady Colts each have two home basketball games left this season.  The men have a home game on Feb. 20, and the women have a home game on Feb. 22. Both teams, however, will be playing on Friday, Feb. 14, in Lockesburg at the UA Cossatot Bank of Lockesburg Gymnasium.

LOCKESBURG —  Both Colt teams came close, but the high flying Nighthawks of National Park College won both games against UA Cossatot Feb. 4.

ASHDOWN — In their last games before the conference tournaments, the De Queen juniors split with Ashdown

MENA — Both De Queen junior high teams lost at Mena Feb. 3

NASHVILLE —With Lizzie Denson scoring 31 points, the league leading Lady Leopards took a key conference win at Nashville on the last day of January. The final was 63-42, but De Queen did not pull away until the fourth quarter.

MOUNT IDA — In a match-up of Lions, the Horatio girls and the Mount Ida boys came out on top Jan. 31.